What People Owe Me

To my friends and family, my our debt is a secret. They know we have a mortgage and they know we have a car payment, but they don't know we have any credit card debt.

So when I buy something for someone, I put it on credit, and then I have to wait for them to pay me back.

Recently, we bought tickets to a play (for next June) for 5 different couples... and we charged it. We were seeing some of them on this week and we sent a reminder for them to pay us, and some of them did, but some of them didn't.

Prior to being payed back, we were owed $1252.70. Some people did pay us back this week (and we loaned a little bit more money to someone else) so now the total we are owed stands at $1051.48.  All of that money will go towards our credit card debt. But the problem is we have no idea when we are going to get that money.

And our friends and family don't know about our credit situation so they are in no hurry to pay us back. Throw in the fact that I'm embarrassed about our debt so I'm not pushing anyone to pay us back and you have an interest free $1000+ loan with no definite amortization date.

The largest loan is to my mother. Obviously I can't push my mother to pay me back. Normally I would write off loans to my mom, but nearly all of the money is for gifts for other people that I bought online for my mom because she doesn't have a computer or internet access. And I don't feel like it is my responsibility to pay for gifts for my brothers/sisters or nieces/nephews. (Side note - my mom is in huge credit card debt too. I don't know the extent of it, but she absolutely buys beyond her means. It is to be noted, however, that she rarely buys anything for herself. The vast majority of her debt is from buying gifts for friends and family.)

I do think if I was more open about my credit card debt, our friends and family would pay us back quicker. They would realize we can't float loans to them indefinitely. However, I'm ashamed and we keep our credit card debt secret, we even talk as if we didn't have any. (Heck, I'm not even totally honest with my husband about our debt. I pay the bills and I imply we don't have any debt. Shameful, I know!)

Anyway, as we get paid back, all that money will go towards our credit card... whenever that is.